Robbins leads Lander to best start

Nardia Robbins sparked Lander's late 9-0 run to guide the Lady Bearcats to a 70-63 win over Columbus State on Jan. 27. The win broke school records for consecutive wins to start a season (20) and longest winning streak in program history.

Robbins is a junior guard out of York Comprehensive.

Lander, now 21-0, is ranked No. 1 in the nation among Division II women's basketball programs. The team still has seven regular season dates in the schedule including three home contests: Feb. 7 vs. Armstrong Atlantic; Feb. 16 vs. Francis Marion; and Feb. 26 vs. Augusta State.

FANTASTIC FRESHMAN -- USC Upstate freshman Torrey Craig posted his first career 20-point game on Jan. 3 at Kennesaw State with a career-best 25 points. On Monday night the Spartan rookie set a new career-high with 27 points in a 59-54 home win over Kennesaw State.

Craig is a graduate of Great Falls High.

Craig hit a 3-pointer from the right wing to break a 54-54 tie with 41 seconds to play. Craig's triple proved to be the game-winning basket as Josh Chavis dropped in two free throws with 17 seconds to play giving the Spartans (3-19, 2-10 A-Sun) the five point win.

Craig is averaging 14.8 points and 7 rebounds. The Spartans have eight games left in the Atlantic Sun regular season including three homes games: Feb. 11 vs. North Florida; Feb. 13 vs. Jacksonville; and Feb. 28 vs. Florida Gulf Coast.

TRACK AND FIELD -- Winthrop senior Keary Simms led the way with two top three finishes in the 60m hurdles and the triple jump at the Liberty Invitational last weekend. Simms ran 8.14 seconds for the hurdles and broke his own school record in the triple jump with a leap of 14.54m (47-feet, 6.5-inches).

Freshman Kimberleigh Riggs of Rock Hill opened her collegiate career in the pole vault with a school-record 3.45m (11-feet, 3.5-inches) for a 3rd place finish.

Two other Eagles recorded top three finishes as sophomore Sharrone Honor hurdled was clocked at 9.12 seconds in the 60m hurdles and junior Mariam Abdullah jumped 18-1 in the long jump. The quartet of AJ Fitzsimmons, Gabe Holguin, Steve Rivard and Adam Leroux finished second in the 4 x 800m relay in 8:03.42.

Other Eagles to place in the top six included the foursome of Jen Schofield, Lisa Nichols, Shayna Jenkins and Megan Fulks who claimed fourth place in the 4 x 800m relay in 10:04.26. Schofield doubled back to claim fourth in the 1000m with a time of 3:13.01. Rivard surged to a fifth place finish in the 3000m run in 9:01.51. Leroux added a sixth place finish in the 1000m run in 2:33.88 while Honor and sophomore Monique James claimed sixth place finishes in the 200m (26.68) and 400m(61.58), respectively.

The teams compete Friday and Saturday at East Tennessee State in the Niswonger Invitational.

WOMEN'S LACROSSE -- Winthrop athletic director Tom Hickman said it was the right move to push back the start of women's lacrosse a year. The team will compete in the spring of 2013. Hickman has re-posted the opening for the program's first head coach and hopes to make a hire in April of this year.

MARTAVEOUS SMITH -- The website Rivals.com is reporting Martaveous Smith, who had committed to Winthrop but failed to qualify academically, dropped out of Tallahassee Community College. Smith, a 6-9 forward, was the Eagles' top recruit. The hope was that Smith could get his academics squared away after two years at TCC and then play for Winthrop. In 11 games for TCC he scored 17 points and had 18 rebounds.

ON DECK -- The Herald-area has at least four dozen baseball players on South Carolina college rosters this season. We'll do our best to follow them throughout the coming months.

At Charleston Southern: Charlie McCready is expected to be one of the starting pitchers and should see a lot of action this season. Alex Tomasovich will compete for time at shortstop behind two veteran players, Walt Quattlebaum and Brandon MicKinney.

At Lander: C Chris Hyatt is a redshirt candidate according to the school's athletic website. The freshman out of Northwestern is one of five catchers on the 2011 roster. Hyatt and Austin Dunn (White Knoll HS) were All-State catchers last season.

At Spartanburg Methodist and USC Sumter: There are five local players on both of these teams. Ben Boykin (Nation Ford); Seth Neely (Rock Hill); Logan Pemberton (Lewisville); Josh Vallejos (York); and Shane Waldrop (York) are with the Pioneers in Spartanburg.